Blame the demons, not the innocent

Saturday

Apr 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Bruce BensonT-N Columnist

My son came home last Monday in a bit of a foul mood. He had been arguing with a woman about Muslims."She said all Muslims are bad and want to kill us," he said in a frustrated tone. "That's just not right."I had to agree with him, but I could understand her position. I'm sure the bombings at the Boston Marathon earlier in the day had many people thinking that radical Islamists were at fault. As I write this, who is at fault is still unknown. It was tax day; it could've been a disgruntled taxpayer. Perhaps someone wasn't allowed to run in the marathon and sought vengeance.Who knows? There are plenty of unhinged people in this country. Recent events and the subsequent national debate on gun control are evidence enough of that.I have many Muslim friends and not one is a terrorist, but they feel the animosity, distrust and sometimes downright hate some non-Muslims project toward them.Years ago, I was sitting in a bar in Cairo talking with my friend Mohamed, the bartender. We were having a religious discussion."The world hates Islam," he said. What an untenable position for humanity to be in, 1 billion Muslims thinking the other 5 billion people on Earth hate them."Well, I love you, Mohamed," I said, doing my part to ease global tension."I love you, too," he answered, smiling broadly.If 1 billion Muslims in this world all wanted us dead, we'd be dead. But the truth is only a very small fraction of Muslims are radical. In my opinion, we shouldn't even call them radical "Muslims." They are not Muslim at all. They are terrorists. That's like calling Timothy McVeigh a radical "Christian." I've never heard him called that.I saw a Muslim woman on TV once, crying out about how she was ashamed of Muslims who beheaded a Polish engineer. But she needn't have been ashamed. That is not Islam at all. What shall we call them? Islamic defilers? Demons? Both will work.U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan hit the nail on the head at the Global Ethic Lecture in Tubingen in 2003 when he said, "No religion or ethical system should ever be condemned because of the moral lapses of some of its adherents. If I, as a Christian, for instance, do not wish my faith to be judged by the actions of the Crusaders or the Inquisition, I should be very careful not to judge anyone else's faith by the actions that a few terrorists may commit in its name."I wrote a book about my time in Egypt, called "The Embrace." The following is an excerpt:I then went back up the hill toward Khafre (the middle of the three Great Pyramids of Giza) to look for Ali. Just another day almost over ... kind of boring ... and then ....I saw these three kids, a boy and two girls — probably a brother and two sisters. They have known me for weeks. "Are you Muslim?" the little girl asked.I hesitated."Shwya, shwya," said the boy, (little, little) which is probably a better description than I could have come up with."Are you Muslim?" I asked the little girl."I am Muslim," she said with an Arabic accent, shaking my hand softly and firmly. "I am good Muslim."She looked not at me, but down to the sand, and then, off into the distance. She meant it.Her jet black hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore a clean red sweater over a yellow shirt, and jeans. Like almost everybody I have seen in Egypt, she was well groomed.The conviction of her words, from one so young, surprised me. I pegged her age at eight, maybe ten years old. I've always felt that the delivery of words, the tone of the voice, the timbre, can speak so much more than the actual words. If a picture can be worth a thousand words, then the sound of words must be worth a few hundred.I knew, when I heard her say "I am good Muslim," that she wanted to be the best person she could possibly be, for her parents, presumably, and for her God. I knew she was full of love and kindness for everybody and everything, that she wanted peace on this earth, and for everyone to live a long happy life. She wanted fairness, and truth, and all that is good, like so many children all over the planet, like my own little girl Ally, who was a little whimpery when I left, yesterday and an eternity ago. I also knew that being born into relative poverty in Egypt, this little girl was unlikely to get it.If the world that is prejudiced against Muslims could have seen her face, and heard her speak, I think it would have produced marvelous consequences. There was absolutely nothing but the goodness of childhood in that look, and that earnest voice. If only I could have filmed the little girl saying, "I am Muslim. I am good Muslim." The hair on my arms stood on end, I was so moved. From the mouths of babes, they say. Any parent in the world would be proud.If Islamic defilers or demons are found to be responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, we shouldn't blame the innocent Muslims. Blame the demons.Bruce Benson is a Canadian writer and journalist who makes Hendersonville his home. Reach him at bensonusa@ hotmail.com.